City of Victorville Water District

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2016/07/29) */
In response to your letter dated July 6, 2016, regarding Mr***'s complaint, the City of Victorville has since reversed the $fee along with restoring access to our payment systemI would like to note that upon further investigation in to
Mr***'s rejected payment on March 3rd and June 12th, our online payment system Velocity software run by Govolution, indicated the "account not found" reject message was sent by Mr***'s bank, Schools First Credit Union and not from the City's payment systemThe City will recommend Mr*** contact his financial institution to review a possible change/error in his bank account and invite Mr*** to City Hall and walk him through our electronic funds transfer (EFT) option available to alleviate further issues in processing any future payments
I remain available to discuss should you have further questions

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/04/30) */
The City of Victorville received your letter dated April 16, 2015, regarding your case # XXXXXXXX; [redacted].
Attached is a screen shot of Ms. [redacted]'s account whereby the City of Victorville accepted her payment; yet her bank did not...

accept it and sent it back as a returned item. We have no control over her bank account number. If, in fact, Ms. [redacted] entered her bank account number correctly, I don't know why her bank refused the check. As you may see by the attached, the city applied it to her correct utility account on 3/28/15; and, had to reverse it on 4/6/15. Ms. [redacted] asked that we provide her with the account number she entered into our system; however, we do not see those numbers nor keep them due to the privacy act. Her bank may be able to tell her what the problem was and why her bank did not accept the check.
I hope this clears up the matter in question. If not, please feel free to call me on my direct line at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email me.
Thank you,
[redacted]
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (4200, 13, 2015/04/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I need to know full account numbers not just the last four digits, I have two accounts that match the last four digits of the account number and routing numbers provided in this Email and both accounts had more than enough funds to cover the payments to the city of Victorville and neither of my banks returned any items, so I am still waiting for an answer.
Thank you
[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/04/30) */
After further research the two receipts for Ms. [redacted]'s payments were printed and attached to this email in the hopes they would be helpful for her case.
Both payments were rejected by Ms. [redacted]'s banks for the same reason: "No Account/Unable to Locate Account".
Ms. [redacted] made the January payment of $84.93 with a bank account number ending in 6335 and a routing number of XXXXXXXXX.
Ms. [redacted] made another payment in March for $151.03 and used a checking account number ending in 4360 with the routing number of XXXXXXXXX.
I hope these documents help clear this matter.
Thank you,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/07/14) */
2/4/2014 - Property was liened (previous owner's name). Balance on this account is currently $128.26 and we have sent in a claim for excess funds from the county tax collector's office. We have not received any funds to date. Since the...

principal of the trust paid for the balance of this account as well, we will credit principal of the trust's for and excess funds that we receive in the future.
8/15/2014 - Ownership transferred. Lien was not paid.
12/4/2014 - New owner name added to account. The service address was used as the owner's address was not available through PIMS at the time. A monthly bill has gone to the location every month since January 2015.
6/11/2015 - A delinquent notice was sent to the service location.
7/15/2015 - Property was liened in new owner's name.
10/29/2015 - Another delinquent notice was sent to the service location.
3/29/2016 - Customer called after hours to get water turned on after a plumbing problem.
4/11/2016 - Principal of the trust in office to sign up for services. Explained that name on the account is the owner of record and that principal of the trust would need a power of attorney or to have owner of record sign an owner's acknowledgement and provide proper identification. He was made aware that there was a balance owing at the time, but was not provided an amount to turn on water. Principal of the trust left upset. No paperwork was provided.
7/6/2016 - Principal of the trust called regarding the notice of public hearing and the lien. The customer service representative (CSR) explained the charges as per City of Victorville municipal code § 10.04.060 (Administration of customer accounts). He kept insisting that they bought the property and did not have to pay the lien. CSR explained city policy and minimum monthly service charge fees. She advised him that the lien needed to be paid and he asked for a copy of the lien. CSR transferred call to me. He left a message on my voicemail. I was out of the office.
7/7/2016 - I returned the call from principal of the trust and updated address for billing. I told him that I would research the account and call him back. He provided an email address. I sent him an email and asked that he acknowledge so that I could send him my findings after I finished researching the account. I sent another email later in the day because I did not receive a reply. According to principal of the trust, he is one of the principals in the owner of record's trust account. The trust purchased the property on 8/15/2014. The previous owner had 12 months to pay up on the taxes to reclaim the property. Therefore, they knew that they would have to wait prior to spending any money on the property. I explained the city policy and minimum charges. This is the first property that they have purchased in Victorville; therefore, they were unaware of the policy and charges. After conversing for a few minutes, I asked if he had the deed of trust. His response was that there wasn't a deed of trust that it was a tax deed. I informed him that I believed that this would release the lien from the previous owner if he could provide a copy of the deed. He said that he would look for it and send a copy to me. I had emailed him twice to provide my contact information so that he could send a copy of the deed to me. The principal of the trust was requesting that all late fees and lien fees be removed from the account. I explained that the lien fees were pass-through to the county and that I was unable to remove those, but that I would take his request to waive the late fees to my supervisor. My supervisor was not in, so I took the request to the Finance Manager. After explaining that all of the delinquent notices and bills went to the service location, the manager considered the information and hesitantly said that it was okay to credit the late fees of $486.09. The things that caused the manager concern was that bills and delinquent notices had gone to the property and the principal of the trust said that they had checked on the property and that they had not received anything. Also, there is an owner responsibility involved. It is the owner's responsibility to provide the correct information to us. The manager told me that we could issue a credit for the late fees but that I needed to make sure that the principal of the trust realized that this would be a one-time courtesy. I had told the principal of the trust that I would have the information for him probably on Monday, July 11th. He said okay.
7/12/2016 - I called and left a message for the principal of the trust at 10:51 a.m. At 11:22 a.m., Accounts receivable processed a payment that came in the mail on the account. They immediately saw my notes and came to inform me that he had made a payment. No adjustment has been made yet. At 3:00 p.m., accounts receivable brought me the Revdex.com complaint letter. I have not received an email reply, a copy of the deed, or a return call at this time.
7/13/2016 - Worked on updating the activity log on this account. Provided a copy to my supervisor via email along with the Revdex.com Complaint and asked her how she would like to handle it. She told me that she was working from home and that we would deal with this when she returned on 7/14/2016. I received a call from the principal of the trust while I was at lunch. I did not return his call due to working on a big project and wanting to make sure what I intended to tell him was approved by my supervisor.
7/14/2016 - Supervisor approved waiving late fees on the account. I called principal of the trust and informed him that we would be waiving the late fees. He wanted to know if we had everything to turn on service. I informed him that I did not know because I handled liens only and I transferred him to customer service. I have completed the adjustment to credit the account $486.09 in late fees, and I am in the process of releasing the liens.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2016/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
The late fees were refunded as requested. The lien fees were not refunded as requested because they were actual expenses paid to the country recorder. As this amount is not significant, I am dropping my objections to the charge. The clerk with whom I dealt provided excellent service.